Our regular trout season here in Michigan is about to close, as of midnight Friday, so I have been hitting the local waters that are going to close with grasshopper imitations, a modified Joe's Hopper in size 10. The past two weekends I found a nice new stretch of the Pine River to hit and the brookies (and a few rainbows to boot) just tore those hoppers up! And this evening I returned yet again to my favorite brookie pond in this part of the world, where the previous four trips (all in the past week) yielded only a few little guys. Well, this afternoon and into early evening the fish were feeding up on top, and I got six including this 12.5" beauty, another of 12", one of 10", and three smaller fish. Five fell for the hopper and the last, a little guy, went for a #16 Elkhair Caddis in black (body & hackle) and grey (wing). The sunset was almost as beautiful as the brookies!

Jonathon

No matter how big the one you just caught is, there's always a bigger one out there somewhere...

MO and Adirman, you guys are invited too. You will have to bring your own kayak, or at least a vehicle on top of which a rented or borrowed one can fit. And, promise to let them all go, no matter how big! There is a small group of us around here who know about this place and we want to keep it that way, so it can turn into a real trophy brook trout fishery. It's just perfect for them - the feeder creek is heavily spring-fed and ice cold, and there are some really nice gravel beds in there for them to spawn on. Plus, it's hard to fish from shore, so that keeps folks unwilling to lug a kayak, canoe, or float tube in from having much success. On top of all of this, I have now seen a bald eagle out there twice!

Remember, I do have a guest room, and now even two fold-out couch beds for wayward troutnuts...book now for the opener (last Saturday in April) and I'll pencil you in!!

Jonathon

No matter how big the one you just caught is, there's always a bigger one out there somewhere...

I can do that as I NEVER keep my trout anymore anyway, ESPECIALLY Brookies!!
Love and respect them too much now as I'm sure you feel as well. Thanks for the invite and who knows, maybe someday I'll take you up on it!!

I just can't bring myself to kill a trout these days - they're just too beautiful, even though I know how good they taste, and brookies were my favorite. I think I would just feel bad looking at a faded corpse that was once a magnificent, brilliantly colored creature. In fact, my last trip to the Pine River yielded five fish of legal length, which is a limit! And every one of them, I looked them in the eye and said, "Yeah, I could kill you and take you home, but you're just too pretty...go back and grow some more! See ya next spring!" Besides the fact that they were each and every one a wild fish, as this stream receives NO stocking!

Jonathon

No matter how big the one you just caught is, there's always a bigger one out there somewhere...

Thanks for the invite! I've been wanting to make it up there to that part of Michigan for quite awhile now, maybe it will happen one of these years...I rarely keep trout (maybe one or two a year), and never brookies! Like you said they're just too darned pretty.

MO, just give me a holler and I'll send my contact info. BTW, there's about a hundred other places to throw flies at fish around here - I've barely scratched the surface...good thing I have a second job!

Jonathon

No matter how big the one you just caught is, there's always a bigger one out there somewhere...